


a boy falling out of sky

by Zabbers



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-24 23:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2600807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zabbers/pseuds/Zabbers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sort of bittersweet magic carpet moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a boy falling out of sky

They're flying, soaring, afloat over a cerulean body of water, the sun glinting on its surface like silver, and it's beautiful. The ocean is smooth as pearl except where the light falls on it, and there Ianto can see every wrinkle, every disturbance in the water, all the pattern and chaos of a sea at rest, like scales on the skin of a vast, endless snake.

It is like and nothing like flying on a conventional aircraft. The ship beneath their feet is an impossible thing, at one and the same time a sleek and baroque construct, silent but for the sound of the wind around its protective forcefield. And it is transparent, clear as the empty air and just as free.

Ianto's mind races with thoughts of cloaking technologies, life-support systems, inertial dampeners. But Jack is laughing, really laughing, laughing aloud for joy at this frivolous, fantastical defiance, this willful declaration that, yes, in spite of everything, he is alive, they are alive.

Jack presses several keys on his remote control, and the ship swoops; it climbs and pitches and yaws, it dances in midair, and all the while they never lose their seat, the ship holds them, cradles them. Never once does Ianto fear, even in his heart of hearts, that he will fall, plummet into the perfect ocean like Icarus out of Crete.

A bank of clouds rolls in beneath them, thin at first, and then thicker and thicker until Ianto can no longer see blue through the misty white. Jack inputs another command, and they descend into these clouds until they are surrounded, engulfed by them. Irrationally, Ianto feels a chill, damp and icy, and he reaches down to pull his suit jacket on over his shirtsleeves, grey over blue. When he looks up again, they are below the clouds, at an insane angle to the green ground, the world, tilting dizzily, far closer than he had expected, extraordinarily solid.

Jack's grin turns wicked, and Ianto has a split second to gulp a nervous breath before the ship is spiraling toward the grass and the trees, down, down, a swan dive, a wild ride, a free-fall.

When they land, Ianto is a little unsteady on his feet. Jack hands him down, and Ianto's eyes seek out Jack's, to ground himself, to share in the joy of it, to dance. Jack's eyes are full of mirth, and Ianto is astonished to think that he is part of this happiness. But as they jump, together, to earth, Jack turns away.

When they land, Lisa is waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Livejournal, 21 March 2007.


End file.
